World Cup 2014: Argentina gets past Netherlands and into the final, but victory sure is ugly

The Argentines advanced to the final Wednesday with a semifinal win over the Netherlands in Sao Paolo. After the two sides played a scoreless 120 minutes and went to penalty kicks, Argentine goalkeeper Sergio Romero made two good saves to knock the Dutch out by a 4-2 margin.

And ... that about summarizes the action in this one.

For all those casual soccer fans, this one probably wasn't for you. For the soccer detractors, this one was most certainly for you, because you can hate the sport more now.

The two teams combined to take just 15 shots. The Dutch put just one on frame.

And ... and ... and ...

Look, bad games like this just happen sometimes.

Defense wins championships? Well then ...

Argentina's goalkeeper Sergio Romero celebrates after he saved shot by Netherlands' Wesley Sneijder from the spot during Wednesday's semifinal match between Argentina and the Netherlands. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)Frank Augstein

Soccer is like any team sport. In other sports, a low-scoring game could be because one or both teams are playing phenomenal defense, a pitcher is throwing a gem of a game, or a hockey goaltender is stopping shot after shot, much like when Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa basically stood on his head to hold Brazil scoreless in the World Cup's first round. Or the game could be low-scoring because your team is the Jacksonville Jaguars or the Canadian national soccer team -- i.e. not very good.

Then there is that third class of low-scoring games, the ones that remain that way because the two sides are dancing around each other and throwing jabs all day long, like a boxer afraid to come in close because he's afraid a Mike Tyson uppercut will knock him out in one punch.

In Wednesday's World Cup semifinal, it was largely because both Argentina and the Netherlands approached the game very conservatively. For each team, the approach was that they could not lose in regulation if they didn't surrender any goals, and neither did.

The Dutch once again played an ostensible 5-3-2 formation, with even more players dropping deep in defense at times. Defensive midfielder Nigel de Jong shadowed Argentine star Leo Messi for much of the game and effectively took him out of the action, with Messi failing to control matters even after de Jong was replaced.

As for the Argentines, they just had few ideas with their star player closed down, choosing instead to sit deep, defend and hope for a moment of magic from Messi. That is pretty typical of this team, despite its surplus of excellent forwards. What they lack is a good playmaker or multiple players who pass and move off the ball.

Either way, someone had to win at the end of the day. It was the Argentines.

Looking ahead to the final

Now Argentina moves on to their fifth World Cup final, this time against Germany.

And Germany will probably smoke them.

OK, so that's a bit too flippant. It could be a great match if Leo Messi can get going, and unlike the Dutch, the Germans don't have a lockdown defensive midfielder like de Jong.

It's not that the Germans have more talent overall. They really don't.

It's that their players operate much better as a team. Whereas nearly all of Argentina's best players play forward, Germany's play everywhere. In particular, they have a very good passing midfield, led by Toni Kroos and Sami Khedira, that makes the offense hum when they are on form, as they were in Tuesday's 7-1 blowout win over Brazil.

All that said, is the final worth watching on Sunday? Most definitely. You'll see what is probably the world's best national team -- Germany -- take on the team with the world's best player in Messi. At the end of the day, one country will be exploding in joyous celebration. You don't get that every day.

Player of the day: Sergio Romero. The Argentine goalkeeper made the big saves when they mattered in penalty kicks.

Unfortunate business decision of the day: A pub in Galway, Ireland, offered a 50-cent discount on German beers for every goal Germany scored on Tuesday.

Unfortunate ad campaign of the day: Singapore's National Council on Problem Gambling ran an anti-gambling ad that has missed the mark just a tad. In the ad, a despondent boy says that he hopes Germany wins the World Cup because his father bet all his savings on Germany. So yeah, this family is rich now.